Organ-on-a-chip

This chip-sized device mimics the dynamics of a living organ for safe and effective tests and improves the physiology of in-vitro models. It enables more efficient research approaches in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and chemicals.
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Technology Life Cycle

Technology Life Cycle

R&D

Initial phase where new technologies are conceptualized and developed. During this stage, technical viability is explored and initial prototypes may be created.

Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

Prototype Demonstration

Prototype is fully demonstrated in operational environment.

Technology Diffusion

Technology Diffusion

Early Adopters

Embrace new technologies soon after Innovators. They often have significant influence within their social circles and help validate the practicality of innovations.

Organ-on-a-chip

This microfluidic technology involves the fabrication of small 3D devices that mimic the structure and function of human organs. Organ-on-a-chip (OOC) devices consist of a small chip, usually made of plastic or glass, with tiny channels and chambers that can be lined with living human cells, creating a microenvironment that simulates the conditions of the organ it is mimicking.

The technology works by combining microfabrication techniques with tissue engineering to create a functional model of an organ. Cells are seeded into the channels and chambers of the device, where they grow and develop into functional tissue, mimicking the structure and function of the organ in the body.

Organ-on-a-chip technology has the potential to revolutionize the way drugs are developed and tested. It can provide a more accurate and reliable way to test the efficacy and toxicity of new drugs, reducing the need for animal testing and potentially saving millions of dollars in drug development costs. It can also provide researchers with a better understanding of how organs function and how diseases develop, leading to new insights into the underlying mechanisms of disease and potential new treatments.

Moreover, the OOC technology can also be used to study personalized medicine, as researchers can create models that are specific to a patient's genetics and medical history, which can help in the development of personalized treatments.

Future Perspectives

The large-scale adoption of organs-on-a-chip could reduce the time necessary to develop new drugs. It creates more room for experimenting with innovative formulas while abiding by ethical codes throughout the world. Animal and human testing could become something of the past while maintaining industry efficiency.

As the technology matures, these chips could be available as point-of-care testing. That is, at the time and place of patient care, especially in critical care settings such as the intensive care units, the operating room, and the emergency department.

Eventually, such chips could be made on a personalized scale. Every single person could have their own set of chips, with each of them representing a particular organ. Enter personalized tests: drugs and cosmetics could be first tested on the chip to check for incompatibilities and potential reactions and only applied directly to the organism following satisfactory results. Unintended consequences, which create health issues and general frustration with personal care products, could be significantly reduced. Finally, the ultimate goal of organ-on-a-chip technology might be integrating numerous organs into a single chip. From this moment onwards, it would be possible to build a more complex multi-organ chip model, finally achieving a "human-on-a-chip" aspiration.

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There is increasing interest in miniaturized technologies in diagnostics, therapeutic testing,and biomedicinal fundamental research. The same is true for dermal studies in topical drug development, dermatological disease pathology testing, and cosmetic science. This review aims to collect the recent scientific literature and knowledge about the application of skin-on-a-chip technology in drug diffusion studies, in pharmacological and toxicological experiments, in wound healing, and in fields of cosmetic science (aging or repair). The basic mathematical models are also presented in the article to predict physical phenomena, such as fluid movement, drug diffusion, and heat transfer taking place across the dermal layers in the chip using Computational Fluid Dynamics techniques. Soon, it can be envisioned that animal studies might be at least in part replaced with skin-on-a-chip technology leading to more reliable results close to study on humans. The newtechnology is a cost-effective alternative to traditional methods used in research institutes, university labs, and industry. With this article, the authors would like to call attention to a new investigational family of platforms to refresh the researchers’ theranostics and preclinical, experimental toolbox.
The organ-on-a-chip (OOAC) is in the list of top 10 emerging technologies and refers to a physiological organ biomimetic system built on a microfluidic chip. Through a combination of cell biology, engineering, and biomaterial technology, the microenvironment of the chip simulates that of the organ in terms of tissue interfaces and mechanical stimulation. This reflects the structural and functional characteristics of human tissue and can predict response to an array of stimuli including drug responses and environmental effects. OOAC has broad applications in precision medicine and biological defense strategies. Here, we introduce the concepts of OOAC and review its application to the construction of physiological models, drug development, and toxicology from the perspective of different organs. We further discuss existing challenges and provide future perspectives for its application.
Organs-on-chips have emerged as viable platforms for drug screening and personalized medicine. While a wide variety of human organ-on-a-chip models have been developed, rarely have there been reports on the inclusion of sensors, which are critical in continually measuring the microenvironmental parameters and the dynamic responses of the microtissues to pharmaceutical compounds over extended periods of time. In addition, automation capacity is strongly desired for chronological monitoring. To overcome this major hurdle, in this protocol we detail the fabrication of electrochemical affinity-based biosensors and their integration with microfluidic chips to achieve in-line microelectrode functionalization, biomarker detection and sensor regeneration, allowing continual, in situ and noninvasive quantification of soluble biomarkers on organ-on-a-chip platforms. This platform is almost universal and can be applied to in-line detection of a majority of biomarkers, can be connected with existing organ-on-a-chip devices and can be multiplexed for simultaneous measurement of multiple biomarkers. Specifically, this protocol begins with fabrication of the electrochemically competent microelectrodes and the associated microfluidic devices (~3 d). The integration of electrochemical biosensors with the chips and their further combination with the rest of the platform takes ~3 h. The functionalization and regeneration of the microelectrodes are subsequently described, which require ~7 h in total. One cycle of sampling and detection of up to three biomarkers accounts for ~1 h. This protocol details the fabrication and application of reusable electrochemical affinity-based biosensors and their integration with microfluidic chips. The sensors can be used for the detection of soluble biomarkers on organ-on-a-chip platforms.
Human Organs-on-Chips on Wyss Institute | Clinical studies take years to complete and testing a single compound can cost more than $2 billion. Meanwhile…
In recent years, ever-increasing scientific knowledge and modern high-tech advancements in micro- and nano-scales fabrication technologies have impacted significantly on various scientific fields. A micro-level approach so-called “microfluidic technology” has rapidly evolved as a powerful tool for numerous applications with special reference to bioengineering and biomedical engineering research. Therefore, a transformative effect has been felt, for instance, in biological sample handling, analyte sensing cell-based assay, tissue engineering, molecular diagnostics, and drug screening, etc. Besides such huge multi-functional potentialities, microfluidic technology also offers the opportunity to mimic different organs to address the complexity of animal-based testing models effectively. The combination of fluid physics along with three-dimensional (3-D) cell compartmentalization has sustained popularity as organ-on-a-chip. In this context, simple humanoid model systems which are important for a wide range of research fields rely on the development of a microfluidic system. The basic idea is to provide an artificial testing subject that resembles the human body in every aspect. For instance, drug testing in the pharma industry is crucial to assure proper function. Development of microfluidic-based technology bridges the gap between in vitro and in vivo models offering new approaches to research in medicine, biology, and pharmacology, among others. This is also because microfluidic-based 3-D niche has enormous potential to accommodate cells/tissues to create a physiologically relevant environment, thus, bridge/fill in the gap between extensively studied animal models and human-based clinical trials. This review highlights principles, fabrication techniques, and recent progress of organs-on-chip research. Herein, we also point out some opportunities for microfluidic technology in the future research which is still infancy to accurately design, address and mimic the in vivo niche.
Over the past decade, organs-on-a-chip and microphysiological systems have emerged as a disruptive in vitro technology for biopharmaceutical applications. By enabling new capabilities to engineer physiological living tissues and organ units in the precisely controlled environment of microfabricated devices, these systems offer great promise to advance the frontiers of basic and translational research in biomedical sciences. Here, we review an emerging body of interdisciplinary work directed towards harnessing the power of organ-on-a-chip technology for reproductive biology and medicine. The focus of this topical review is to provide an overview of recent progress in the development of microengineered female reproductive organ models with relevance to drug delivery and discovery. We introduce the engineering design of these advanced in vitro systems and examine their applications in the study of pregnancy, infertility, and reproductive diseases. We also present two case studies that use organ-on-a-chip design principles to model placental drug transport and hormonally regulated crosstalk between multiple female reproductive organs. Finally, we discuss challenges and opportunities for the advancement of reproductive organ-on-a-chip technology.
The development of new medicine is problematic because laboratories cannot replicate the human body's environment, making it difficult to determine how patie...
Organs-on-chips (OoCs) are systems containing engineered or natural miniature tissues grown inside microfluidic chips. To better mimic human physiology, the chips are designed to control cell microenvironments and maintain tissue-specific functions. Combining advances in tissue engineering and microfabrication, OoCs have gained interest as a next-generation experimental platform to investigate human pathophysiology and the effect of therapeutics in the body. There are as many examples of OoCs as there are applications, making it difficult for new researchers to understand what makes one OoC more suited to an application than another. This Primer is intended to give an introduction to the aspects of OoC that need to be considered when developing an application-specific OoC. The Primer covers guiding principles and considerations to design, fabricate and operate an OoC, as well as subsequent assaying techniques to extract biological information from OoC devices. Alongside this is a discussion of current and future applications of OoC technology, to inform design and operational decisions during the implementation of OoC systems. Organs-on-chips are microfluidic systems containing miniature tissues with the aim of mimicking human physiology for a range of biomedical and therapeutic applications. Leung, de Haan et al. report practical tips to inform design and operational decisions during the implementation of organ-on-a-chip systems.

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